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Neanderthal Hunter, (American Mus. Nat. Hist.)

The Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) is a prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools. It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth, extending from 2.5 million years ago, with the introduction of stone tools by hominids such as Homo habilis, to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BCE.

The term Paleolithic, literally "Old Age of the Stone", was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865 and derives from the Greek παλαιολιθικός - palaiolithikos, παλαιός - palaios ("old") and λίθος, - lithos ("stone"). The Paleolithic era ended with the Mesolithic, or in areas with an early neolithisation, the Epipaleolithic.

The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time, humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, given their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree.

Chronology

Traditionally, the Paleolithic is divided into three periods: the Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and the Upper Paleolithic. The three ages mark technological and cultural advances in different human communities.

Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic

Olduwan culture

Acheulean culture

Clactonian culture

Middle Paleolithic

Mousterian culture

Aterian culture

Upper Paleolithic

Châtelperronian culture

Aurignacian culture

Gravettian culture

Solutrean culture

Magdalenian culture

Human evolution

Human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of humans as a distinct species. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how this change and development occurred. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology, linguistics, paleontology, archeology and genetics. The term human, in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominids, such as the australopithecines.

Human genealogy

Timeline of human evolution

The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the development of human species and the evolution of the ancestors to humans. This timeline does not explain the evolution of, for example, lions, dinosaurs, or birds. It includes a more detailed explanation of other animals, species, or genus, which are possible ancestors of Homo sapiens sapiens.

It begins with the time of the origin of life and presents a possible line of descendants that led to humans. This timeline is based on studies from paleontology, developmental biology, morphology, and from anatomical and genetic data. The study of human evolution is a major component of anthropology.

Simplified human genealogy

The timeline below shows a simplified genealogy of Paleolithic humanity, although other ideas of human genealogy exist for the same period:^[1]

Timeline scale is in thousands of years.

Climate

Currently agreed upon classifications as Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes

Age (before)	America	Atlantic Europe	Maghreb	Mediterranean Europe	Central Europe
10,000 years	Flandrian interglacial	Flandriense	Mellahiense	Versiliense	Flandrian interglacial
80,000 years	Wisconsin	Devensiense	Regresión	Regresión	Wisconsin glaciation
140,000 years	Sangamoniense	Ipswichiense	Ouljiense	Tirreniense II y III	Eemian interglacial
200,000 years	Illinois	Wolstoniense	Regresión	Regresión	Wolstonian glaciation
450,000 years	Yarmouthiense	Hoxniense	Anfatiense	Tirreniense I	Hoxnian interglacial
580,000 years	Kansas	Angliense	Regresión	Regresión	Kansan glaciation
750,000 years	Aftoniense	Cromeriense	Maarifiense	Siciliense	Cromerian interglacial
1,100,000 years	Nebraska	Beestoniense	Regresión	Regresión	Beestonian stage
1,400,000 years	interglaciar	Ludhamiense	Messaudiense	Calabriense	Donau-Günz

Way of life

The Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic, comprises more than a million years, and during this period major climatic and other changes occurred which affected the evolution of humans. Humans themselves evolved into their current morphological form during the later period of the Stone Age.

Paleolithic humans appear to have ranged widely and were distributed sparsely, but uniformly. The Paleolithic remains which have been found are astonishingly uniform, everywhere in the range of humans. Implements of the same type have been found in what is now Britain, France, and along the banks of the Nile.^[2]

The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was primitive, with humans living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They hunted for and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or cabins.

Technology

During this time period people made tools of stone, bone, and wood. Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools including Handaxes which were most likely used as cutting and chopping tools, digging implements or in animal traps and were possibly in courting behaviour, choppers and scrappers which were most likely used for the purpose of skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended sticks which were often procured for the purpose of digging up edible roots. Early humans presumably have been using wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to hunt small animals much like our close relatives the common chimpanzee have recently been observed doing.^[3] The lower Paleolithic Hominid Homo erectus discovered fire around 300,000 or 1.5 million years ago and possibly invented rafts (c. 800,000 BP) to travel over large bodies of water which may have allowed a group of homo erectus to reach the island of Flores and evolve into the small hominid Homo floresiensis, however it must also be noted that this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community.^[4] Lower Paleolithic humans are known to have constructed shelters such as the possible wood hut at Terra Amata. The most ancient Paleolithic stone tool industry the Oldowan was developed by the earliest members of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis around 2.6 million years ago.^[5] and contained tools such as choppers, burins and awls though it completely disappeared around 250,000 years ago and was followed by the more complex Acheulean industry which began around 1.65 million years ago. People during the Middle Paleolithic began to catch shellfish for food and preserve meat by smoking and drying it. Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly created stone tipped spears which are widely considered by scientists to be the first composite tools in human prehistory. Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as modern humans have done^[6] and Neanderthals may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.^[7] In the Upper Paleolithic further technological advances were made. The earliest evidence of human fishing originates from Upper Paleolithic sites.^[8]. The world's oldest example of ceramic art Venus of Dolní Věstonice was produced around 29,000–25,000 BP. During the end of the Paleolithic the spear thrower and the bow and arrow were invented (c. 30,000 BP) ^[9] and early dogs were domesticated (c. 14,000 BP) (presumably) to aid in hunting.^[10] People also wore rough animal skins as articles of clothing. Both Middle and Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs.

Humans probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period.^[11]

An artifact of the Paleolithic period is often known as a Paleolith‎.

Tools

During the interglacial period, about 100,000 years ago, some small family groups of Homo neanderthalensis wandered over Europe, leaving behind nothing but their flint implements.^[2]

In general, the methods of fabrication for tools did not change a great deal during the Paleolithic, despite the number of cultures that existed throughout the era.

Society

An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at Terra Amata (in Nice, France) and dated to the lower paleolithic (c.)400,000 BCE

Neanderthals seemed acquainted with the use of fire, and as the last glacial era approached in Europe they began to seek shelter under rock ledges and in caves, leaving their remains for later discovery.

More primitive humans or societies such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus vanished, and the crudest type of Paleolithic implements vanished. It is not certain whether they were absorbed into the new groups or displaced by them. The Neanderthals for instance may have interbred with modern humans (Homo Sapiens) in Europe and Asia.^[12]

Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo Erectus and Homo Habilis discovered fire, invented shelters and used simple sharp stone tools known as Handaxes as cutting and chopping tools, digging implements and (possibly) in courting behavior.

The human population density in the Paleolithic was very small and numbered around only one person per square mile. The low population density during the Paleolithic was most likely due to low body fat, Infanticide, women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise,^[13] late weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle.^[14]

Among the prey of late Paleolithic humans were the large mammals. They brought the large bones of these animals into caves to crack for the marrow. Animal skins were being used. These people were right-handed, demonstrated by the fact that the left side of their brains were larger than the right.^[2]

Lower Paleolithic humans in contrast to their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendents gained most of their meat from scavenging dead animals rather than hunting and were often prey for larger large carnivores such as the Saber tooth cat Dinofelis and Hyenas which apparently prayed on the hominid Homo habilis^[15]. It is also understood by modern anthropologists that even Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals who hunted large game just as frequently and successfully as modern Upper Paleolithic humans intermittently (and sometimes unsuccessfully) competed with carnivores such as hyenas for shelter in caves and food.^[16]

Typically women were responsible for gathering wild plants and men were responsible for hunting and scavinging dead animals amongst Upper Paleolithic humans.^[17] However according to recent archeological research this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.^[18]^[19] The sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.^[20] There was approximate parity between men and women during bolth the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic and the paleolithic was the most gender-equal period in human history.^[21] ^[22]^[23] ^[24] Matrilineal decent patterns were likely to have been more common during the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic than in the following Neolithic period.^[25]

Paleolithic humans were grouped in Bands that ranged from 25 to 100 members; these clans were formed by several families, however bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" or tribes for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations.^[26] By the end of the paleolithic era—which ended about 10,000 BP—people began to settle down into permanent locations and agriculture began to be relied upon for sustenance in many locations. A large body of scientific evidence exists to suggest that humans took part in long distance between Bands for rare commodities and raw materials as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.^[27] Paleolithic society was communal and collectivistic and individuals were subordinate to the band as a whole.^[28]^[29] Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.^[30]

Paleolithic societies were essentially egalitarian^[31]^[32]^[33] and there is very little or no archaeological evidence to suggest that violent battles between groups (i.e. war) occurred during the paleolithic.^[34] Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism of Paleolithic societies have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.

The earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from the Middle Paleolithic in the form of bracelets, ochre used as body paint and rock art, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as Homo Erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period. Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings and rock paintings. The cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archeologists, the earliest explanation of the Paleolithic cave paintings first proposed by the Physical anthropologist Henri Breuil interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt although this hypothesis falls short of explaining the existence of animals such as Saber-tooth cats and lions which were not hunted for food and the existence of half human-half animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologists Graham Hancock and David Lewis-Williams have suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices as the paintings of half animal-half human paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices. The Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy amongst archeologists and have been described at various times and by various archeologists and anthropologists as representations of Goddesses, pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets, used for sympathetic magic and even as self-portraits of women themselves.^[35] Additionally Upper Paleolithic (and possibly Middle Paleolithic^[36]) humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments.^[37] Music can be theoretically traced to prior to the Oldowan era of the Paleolithic age, the anthropological and archeological designation suggests that music first arose (amongst humans) when stone tools first began to be used by hominids. The noises produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal is a likely source of rhythm created by early humans.

R. Dale Guthrie^[38] has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings but also a variety of lower quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the Venus figurines) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Paleolithic.

The scientific evidence suggests that humankind first developed religious and Spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper paleolithic as evidenced by Middle Paleolithic humans use of burials at sites such as Krapina , Croatia (around 130,000 BP) and Qafzeh, Israel (around 100,000 BP) which has lead anthropologists and archeologists such as Philip Lieberman to believe that middle Paleolithic humans may have possessed a belief in an afterlife and a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life".^[39] Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France may imply that the Neanderthals like some contemporary human cultures may have practiced Ritual defleshing for (presumably) religious reasons. The existence of anthropomorphic images and half human-half animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings,^[40] though the half human-half animal images may have also been indicative of shamanistic practices similar to those practiced by contemporary tribal societies. The earliest known archeological evidence of the existence of shamans and shamanistic practices date back to the early Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 BCE) in what is now the Czech Republic^[41] howbeit, it was probably more common during the early Upper Paleolithic for religious ceremonies to receive equal and full participation from all members of the Band in contrast to the religious traditions of later periods when religious authorities and part-time ritual specialists such as shamans, priests and medicine men were relatively common and integral to religious life.^[42] It appears that the earliest known paleolithic shaman was female.^[43] Religion was often apotropaic specifically, it involved sympathetic magic, the Venus figurines which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archeological record provide an example for Paleolithic sympathetic magic as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women.^[44]

Diet and nutrition

The diet of the Paleolithic hunting and gathering peoples consisted primarily of animal flesh, fruits, and vegetables.^[45] There is insufficient data to determine with any certainty the relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic humans.^[46] According to some anthropologists and many avocates of the Paleolithic diet, Paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained the majority of their food from hunting.^[47] Competing theories suggest that Paleolithic humans may have consumed a plant-based diet in general,^[48]^[49]^[50] or that hunting and gathering possibly contributed equally their diet.^[51] Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Overall they experienced less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them due in part to the fact that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers had access to a wider variety of plants and other foods than Neolithic farmers did which allowed Paleolithic hunter gathers to have a more nutritious diet along with a decreased risk of famine as many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops^[52]^[53]^[54] furthermore, it is unlikely that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease either.^[55] Large seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the neolithic agricultural revolution as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.^[56] Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic.^[57] Recent archeological evidence also indicates that the processes of winemaking had its origins in the Paleolithic when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.^[58] Fishing was invented during the Upper Paleolithic and allowed some Hunter-gatherer communities in the following Mesolithic period such as Lepenski Vir and the native Americans of the northwest coast to become sedentary or semi-nomadic.^[59] Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that Cannibalism was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic based on the large amount of “butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites.^[60] Cannibalism in the Lower and middle paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.^[61]

The Paleolithic-style diet (also known as the paleodiet or the caveman diet) is a modern diet that seeks to replicate the dietary habits of Paleolithic hunter gatherers.

References

^ "Human evolution". Archaelogy.info. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wells, H. G. (1920). The Outline of History. Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 57–58, 107.
^ Rick Weiss, "Chimps Observed Making Their Own Weapons", The Washington Post, February 22, 2007
^ Erectus Ahoy Prehistoric seafaring floats into view
^ Klein, R. (1999). The Human Career. University of Chicago Press.
^ Ann Parson. "Neanderthals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says". National Geographic News. Retrieved February , 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ Boëda E., Geneste J.M., Griggo C., Mercier N., Muhesen S., Reyss J.L., Taha A. & Valladas H. (1999) A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting. Antiquity, 73, 394-402
^ African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution National Geographic News article.
^ McClellan, pg 11
^ Lloyd, J & Mitchinson, J: "The Book of General Ignorance". Faber & Faber, 2006.
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10,M1 McClellan , pg 10]
^ James Owen. "Neanderthals, Modern Humans Interbred, Bone Study Suggests". National Geographic News. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
^ The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA12,M1 McClellan , pg 12]
^ Hillary Mayell. "Killer Cats Hunted Human Ancestors". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
^ Hillary Mayell. "Neandertals, Hyenas Fought for Caves, Food, Study Says". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10,M1 McClellan , pg 10]
^ Dahlberg, Frances. (1975). Woman the Gatherer. London: Yale university press. ISBN 0-30-02989-6.
^ Stefan Lovgren. "Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
^ Stefan Lovgren. "Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Stavrianos , pg 9]
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA420,M1Guthrie , pg 420]
^ Fielder, Christine (2004). "Sexual Paradox:Culture". Sexual Paradox: Complementarity, Reproductive Conflict and Human Emergence. Christine Fielder and Chris King.
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^ [http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Changed-World-Felipe-Fernandez-Armesto/dp/0789496097 Ideas that changed the world Felipe Fernandez Armesto
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^ Hillary Mayell. "When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 5, 2008.
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Stavrianos , pg 13]
^ Stavrianos, pg 23 .
^ Hillary Mayell. "When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 5, 2008.
^ Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 198 Harvard university press
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^ Guthrie, pg 422
^ McDermott, LeRoy. "Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines". Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2, April., 1996. pp. 227-275.
^ Nelson, D.E., Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave, cited by Morley, p. 47
^ Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc
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^ Uniquely Human. 1991. ISBN 0674921836.
^ The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. Thames & Hudson. 1996. ISBN 0-500-05081-3.
^ Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.
^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Stavrianos , pg 10]
^ Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.
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^ Richards MP (2002 Dec). "A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence". Eur J Clin Nutr. 56 (12): 1270–1278. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646. PMID 12494313. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
^ Cordain L. Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans. In: Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. Ungar, P (Ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, pp 363-83.
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^ Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By Peter A. Corning
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^ Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J (2005). "Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century". Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 81 (2): 341–54. PMID 15699220.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Efraim Lev, Mordechai E. Kislev, Ofer Bar-Yosef (March 2005). "Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel". Journal of Archaeological Science. 32 (3): 475–484. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Piperno DR, Weiss E, Holst I, Nadel D. (2004 Aug 5). "Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis" (PDF). Nature. 430 (7000): 670–3. doi:10.1038/nature02734. PMID 15295598. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ William Cocke. "First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
^ African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution National Geographic News article.
^ Tim D white. "Once were Cannibals". Evolution: A Scientific American Reader. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
^ James Owen. "Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests". National Geographic News. Retrieved February 3, 2008.

^ ...the most conservative conclusion today is that Acheulean people and their contemporaries definitely hunted big animals, though their success rate is not clear ibid, p 120.

@@ Line 265: / Line 265: @@
 Paleolithic societies were essentially [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]]<ref>Christopher Boehm (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA198,M1 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 198]  Harvard university press </ref><ref>Christopher Boehm (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA208,M1 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 208]  Harvard university press </ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 McClellan, pg 10 .]</ref> and there is very little or no archaeological evidence to suggest that violent battles between groups (i.e. war) occurred during the paleolithic.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&pg=PA422&lpg=PA422&dq=paleolithic+history+violence&source=web&ots=JLvUQmZfSv&sig=CREh_uTCaX3MR8Ncw5ZTp7lUtvA#PPA422,M1 Guthrie, pg 422]</ref> Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism of Paleolithic societies have arisen, notably the [[Marxist]] concept of [[primitive communism]].
-The earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from the [[Middle Paleolithic]] in the form of bracelets, ochre used as body paint and rock art, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the [[Venus of Tan-Tan]] and the patterns found on elephant bones from [[Bilzingsleben]] in [[Thuringia]] may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as [[Homo Erectus]] prior to the start of the [[Middle Paleolithic]]  period. [[Upper Paleolithic]] humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines,  animal carvings and rock paintings.  The cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archeologists, the earliest explanation of the Paleolithic cave paintings  first proposed by the [[Physical anthropologist]]  [[Henri Breuil]] interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed  to ensure a successful hunt although this hypothesis falls short of explaining the existence of animals such as Saber-tooth cats and lions which were not hunted for food and the existence of half human-half animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologists [[Graham Hancock]] and [[David Lewis-Williams]] have suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices as the paintings of half animal-half human paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer  shamanistic practices. The [[Venus figurines]] have evoked similar controversy amongst archeologists and have been described at various times and by various archeologists and anthropologists as representations of [[Goddesses]], pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets, used for sympathetic magic and even as self-portraits of women themselves.<ref>McDermott, LeRoy. "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199604%2937%3A2%3C227%3ASIUPFF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines]". Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2, April., 1996. pp. 227-275.</ref> Additionally [[Upper Paleolithic]] (and possibly [[Middle Paleolithic]]<ref name="BoneAge">Nelson, D.E., ''Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave'', cited by Morley, p. 47</ref>) humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments.<ref>Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc</ref> Music can be theoretically traced to prior to the [[Oldowan]] era of the [[Paleolithic]] age, the [[anthropological]] and [[archeological]] designation suggests that music first arose (amongst humans) when stone tools first began to be used by [[Hominidae|hominid]]s. The [[noise]]s produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal is a likely source of rhythm created by early humans.
+The earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from the [[Middle Paleolithic]] in the form of bracelets, ochre used as body paint and rock art, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the [[Venus of Tan-Tan]] and the patterns found on elephant bones from [[Bilzingsleben]] in [[Thuringia]] may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as [[Homo Erectus]] prior to the start of the [[Middle Paleolithic]]  period. [[Upper Paleolithic]] humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines,  animal carvings and rock paintings.  The cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archeologists, the earliest explanation of the Paleolithic cave paintings  first proposed by the [[Physical anthropologist]]  [[Henri Breuil]] interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed  to ensure a successful hunt although this hypothesis falls short of explaining the existence of animals such as Saber-tooth cats and lions which were not hunted for food and the existence of half human-half animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologists [[Graham Hancock]] and [[David Lewis-Williams]] have suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices as the paintings of half animal-half human paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer  shamanistic practices. The [[Venus figurines]] have evoked similar controversy amongst archeologists and have been described at various times and by various archeologists and anthropologists as representations of [[Goddesses]], pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets, used for sympathetic magic and even as self-portraits of women themselves.<ref>McDermott, LeRoy. "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199604%2937%3A2%3C227%3ASIUPFF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines]". Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2, April., 1996. pp. 227-275.</ref> Additionally [[Upper Paleolithic]] (and possibly [[Middle Paleolithic]]<ref name="BoneAge">Nelson, D.E., ''Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave'', cited by Morley, p. 47</ref>) humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments.<ref>Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc</ref> Music can be theoretically traced to prior to the [[Oldowan]] era of the Paleolithic age, the [[anthropological]] and [[archeological]] designation suggests that music first arose (amongst humans) when stone tools first began to be used by [[Hominidae|hominid]]s. The [[noise]]s produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal is a likely source of rhythm created by early humans.
 [[R. Dale Guthrie]]<ref name="Guthrie">[[R. Dale Guthrie]], ''[[The Nature of Paleolithic Art]]''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/311260.html Preface].</ref> has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings but also a variety of lower quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the [[Venus figurine]]s) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Paleolithic.

Subdivisions of the Quaternary Period
System/ Period	Series/ Epoch	Stage/ Age	Age
Quaternary	Holocene	Meghalayan	0	4,200
		Northgrippian	4,200	8,200
		Greenlandian	8,200	11,700
	Pleistocene	'Upper'	11,700	129ka
		Chibanian	129ka	774ka
		Calabrian	774ka	1.80Ma
		Gelasian	1.80Ma	2.58Ma
Neogene	Pliocene	Piacenzian	2.58Ma	3.60Ma
Notes and references^[1]^[2] Subdivision of the Quaternary Period according to the ICS, as of January 2020.^[1] For the Holocene, dates are relative to the year 2000 (e.g. Greenlandian began 11,700 years before 2000). For the beginning of the Northgrippian a date of 8,236 years before 2000 has been set.^[2] The Meghalayan has been set to begin 4,250 years before 2000.^[1] 'Tarantian' is an informal, unofficial name proposed for a stage/age to replace the equally informal, unofficial 'Upper Pleistocene' subseries/subepoch. In Europe and North America, the Holocene is subdivided into Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic stages of the Blytt–Sernander time scale. There are many regional subdivisions for the Upper or Late Pleistocene; usually these represent locally recognized cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) periods. The last glacial period ends with the cold Younger Dryas substage.
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